Capital One opening State Street cafe

A New York developer is preparing to cash out of a major office-and-retail project on State Street after landing its third and final tenant, Capital One.

The financial services firm plans to open one of its Capital One cafes in the storefront at the southwest corner of State and Monroe streets, according to people familiar with the property. McLean, Va.-based Capital One has been rolling out the retail concept, a combination bank branch and coffee shop, over the past couple of years. Two are open in Chicago.

The Capital One lease completes a redevelopment by Tishman Realty, which acquired the five-story building at 100 S. State St. in 2015 from Amalgamated Bank. After Amalgamated moved out, Tishman filled up the 78,000-square-foot property with WeWork, a co-working firm that occupies its top three floors, and apparel retailer Champs Sports, which opened a 16,000-square-foot store there earlier this year.

With the building fully leased, New York-based Tishman and its partner, a unit of Paris-based financial services firm AXA Group, have decided to put it up for sale. They've hired Eastdil Secured to market the property to investors, according to a person familiar with the property.

It's unclear how much the building will fetch, but the price almost certainly will exceed the $35 million that Tishman and AXA paid for it in March 2015, knowing that Amalgamated was moving out.

The price will depend on investor perceptions about the State Street retail market, which has flourished in recent years as more residential buildings and hotels have opened in the Loop. The opening of the Block 37 mall and Target store on State Street also have boosted the retail strip's appeal to shoppers.

Still, the retail vacancy rate for the Central Loop, which includes State Street, rose to 10.6 percent last year from 9.3 percent in 2015, according to Stone Real Estate, a Chicago-based retail brokerage.

The new Capital One Cafe will help bring down the vacancy rate. Cushman & Wakefield represented Capital One in the lease, which covers nearly 10,000 square feet.

Capital One has been opening its cafes in cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Philadelphia. Capital One has two here, in Lincoln Park and Lakeview, but recently closed one in the Gold Coast.

The cafes serve Peet's Coffee and baked goods, which Capital One hopes will bring in potential customers. But Capital One pitches customers only if they inquire about its services.